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All in the mind

2 Read this article quickly and decide whether you are
more like Emily Feld or her mother, Christine.

The next step in brain evolution
Emily Feld is a native of a new planet. While the 20-year-
old university student may appear to live in London, she
actually spends much of her time in another galaxy – in
the digital universe of websites, e-mails, smart phones
and social networking sites. The behaviour of Emily and
her generation, say experts, is being shaped by digital
technology as never before. It may even be the next step in
evolution, transforming our brains and the way we think.

‘First thing every morning I check my mobile for messages,
have a coffee and then go on Twitter,’ says Emily. ‘I look at
Facebook, my favourite social networking site, update my
status, add any photos and interesting articles or music
attention to particular bits of information, so it may appear
clips I’ve found. And I’ve got about 300 friends so there are
that attention spans are shorter.’
always messages to read and reply to. Then I’ll browse the
Internet, and if a news article on Google catches my eye, The question, then, is how do digital natives learn to
I’ll read it. discriminate, and what determines the things that
interest them? Parents who hope that skills, values and
‘The other day, I went to meet a friend in town and
limits are instilled at school may be fi ghting a losing
realised I’d left my mobile at home. I felt so lost without it
battle. According to some educationalists, the reason
that I panicked and went back to collect it. I need to have
why many children today do not pay attention in school is
it on me at all times. Technology is an essential part of my
that they fi nd teaching methods dull compared with their
everyday life. I don’t know where I’d be without it.’
digital experiences. Instead, parameters are increasingly
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That’s what makes Emily a ‘digital native’, someone who set by ‘wiki-thinking’, peer groups exchanging ideas
has never known a world without instant communication. through digital networks. Just as the online encyclopedia
Her mother Christine, on the other hand, is a ‘digital Wikipedia has been built from the collective knowledge of
immigrant’, still coming to terms with a culture ruled by thousands of contributors, so digital natives draw on the
the ring of a mobile and the zip of text messages. Though experience and advice of online communities to shape
55-year-old Christine happily shops online and e-mails their interests.
friends, at heart she’s still in the old world. ‘Children today
Where is this all leading? Only one thing seems clear:
are permanently multitasking – downloading tracks,
changes propelled by the digital world are just beginning.
uploading photos, texting. It’s non-stop,’ she says. ‘They
Indeed, apart from age, one of the differences between the
fi nd sitting down and reading, even watching TV, too slow
natives and the immigrants is the intuitive acceptance of
and boring.’
rapid digital change. Parents may use the Internet as much
Are digital natives like Emily charting a new course for as their children, but what they are not used to doing is
human intelligence? Many parents fear that children who upgrading. The younger generation are much more used
spend hours glued to computer screens will end up as to replacing old technology. Faster broadband speeds,
zombies with the attention span of an insect. Cyberspace smaller hardware – innovation is happening at such a pace
is full of junk, they worry, and computer games are packed that what was science fi ction a few years ago will soon be
with mindless violence. But it need not be like that, say fact.
some experts, and increasingly it isn’t, as users exert more
Anecdotally, it seems, a lot of natives in this digital
control and discrimination.
culture are adept at multitasking, doing several things
The sheer mass of information in the modern world is simultaneously. But nobody knows exactly what the
forcing digital natives to make choices that those who effect will be. In a sense, we are running a grand-scale
grew up with only books and television did not have to experiment. We’re bringing up a whole generation in this
make. ‘Younger people sift more and fi lter more,’ says totally new environment – without any fi rm evidence of
Helen Petrie, a professor of human–computer interaction. how they will be affected.
‘We have more information to deal with, and we pay less

Adapted from The Times online
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